Allan Houston said yesterday that he and the Knicks’ medical staff didn’t take his arthritic knee condition seriously enough earlier this season, had the wrong approach to treating it and forced a premature return in December.

Houston said a new set of “measuring sticks” are in place, as is a revised rehab program that’s concentrating on several parts of his leg, not just his knee.

Houston, who has played in 20 of the 62 games this season, indicated the new plan of attack may compromise his chances of returning this season since the “standards” are higher.

“Realizing what I’m doing now and the progress I had and have to make, there’s no way I should have been out there,” Houston said of his December comeback.

Since, Houston said, “The whole staff sat down, talked about it and went to good people. We didn’t evaluate it in that much depth the first time. We didn’t say we have to look at this thing seriously. Now that we did, we all see where we have to go.”

Houston, once emphatic he’d return, was now not quite as sure. Indeed, with five weeks left to the season, Houston is running out of time. However, he said he’s willing to return, even if it means playing only the final week.

“I feel between now and the end of the season I’ll be ready to play,” Houston said. “I just have a feel I will because it’s getting better.”

However, Houston, who went back to the injured list Jan. 28, had no timetable on practicing. He likely would need two weeks of practices.

“There’s an overall plan that has to be filled,” Houston said. “I can’t mess with it.

“It wasn’t all my decision but it was on me,” Houston said of his prior return date. “That was just me, deciding myself, thinking I can play. But we didn’t know that then. I didn’t know that and we didn’t know that because we didn’t have those measuring sticks then.

“The training staff is very in touch with a measuring stick of where I need to be before I get out there. They have targeted progression stages.”

Houston’s revised rehab includes leg exercises designed to strengthen not just the knee but all parts of the leg.